Esther Waters

upon me. You are still very weak, I can see that. Would you
like to have one of the nurses to walk round with you? You
had better--you might fall and hurt the baby. My word, he
is a fine boy.'

'Yes, he is a beautiful boy; it will break my heart to part
with him.'

Some eight or nine poor girls stood outside, dressed alike
in dingy garments, like half-dead flies trying to crawl through
an October afternoon; and with their babies and a keen wind
blowing, they found it difficult to hold on their hats.

'It do catch you a bit rough, coming out of them 'ot
rooms,' said a woman standing by her. 'I'm that weak I can
'ardly carry my baby. I dunno 'ow I shall get as far as the
Edgware Road. I take my bus there. Are you going that
way?'

'No, I'm going close by, round the corner.'

CHAPTER XVIII

HER hair hung about her, her hands and wrists were
shrunken, her flesh was soft and flabby, for suckling her
child seemed to draw all strength from her, and her nervous
depression increased from day to day, she being too weary
and ill to think of the future; and for a whole week her
physical condition held her to the exclusion of every other
thought. Mrs. Jones was very kind, charging her only ten
shillings a week for her board and lodging; but this was
a great deal when no more than two pounds five shillings
remained between her and the workhouse, and this fact was
brought home to her sternly when Mrs. Jones came to her
for the first week's money. Ten shillings gone; only one
pound fifteen shillings left, and still she was so weak that she
could hardly get up and down stairs. But if she were twice
as weak, if she had to crawl along the street on her hands

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